So, I bought some cheaper leds a while back and tried to install them without a resistor. They started blinking on and off and then shut off. (While trucks engine was running, worked perfectly when engine off) I went onto superbrightleds.com and ordered a pair of H13 headlight resistors. I had to save them a little bit in order to fit but that has nothing to do with my issue. Once I plugged them in, I turned on the headlights and checked the bright lights as well. I started the engine and both headlights started to flicker very noticeably and now they wouldn't switch to the bright lights. I unhooked passenter resistor and added it to the drivers side to see if i didn't have enough. No change. I also found out that if I hook the drivers side up with the engine running and then try to plug in the passenger side, it won't power up(passenger side won't). Just for the heck of it i tested the volts before and after the resistors with a multimeter. This is what I found. Both stock headlights had around 12 volts before resistor. Drivers after resistor remained the same while the passenger side didn't out anything out volt wise. I'm not sure where to go from here. I have 2 load equalizers that I'm debating on hooking into the headlights hoping that will help. Any ideas??

I have an 06 ram 1500 5.7l hemi 4x4 quad cab

 

Anyone??

 

Hard to say without seeing the lights and the wiring diagrams for the truck and lights. Some people have good luck installing LED's, others dont. Canbus is tricky to play around with.

 

Couple of notes to consider that may or may not help you troubleshoot this.
- LED are one directional. They are diodes that just happen give off light, one-way check valve types electrical devices. The electricity flows only one way through them. Will not flow and will not light up if hooked up backwards
- LED are voltage sensitive. Under voltage, they will not light. Over voltage, they may "pop" and go out. Like a fuse. Within range, the brightness is somewhat adjustable as volts go up and down.
- Resistors drop voltage. If your battery or your alternator system is weak, especially at low idle, you will see the issues you are having due to low voltage lights cutting out. Remove the resistors.
- Some vehicles have lights run off of the alternator when truck is running (relay switches over). Alternator power is "dirty" power that has varying voltage as as well as pulsing voltage. LED do not like this. They will flicker with power pulse and voltage rise and falls. One method to clean up power is to put capacitors inline. Another is to use only battery power, the battery acts like a large capacitor that sinks and smooths out the power, filters power. So, look at wiring for your lights on your vehicle. Determine how the lights are getting their power. Figure out if the power is dirty and needs to be filtered and which is the best way for your setup to do that (capacitors or battery).

Summarizing,
- needs clean filtered power within specific voltage range.
- remove resistors, they are killing voltage, causing drop at low rpm
- add capacitors, they filter and cleanup dirty power pulses
- run off battery, or add a small secondary battery specifically for the lights, batts sink drops and spikes as well as regulate the voltage.

Hope that helps to figure it out.

 

Ok. I don't know if it helps or not but If a bulb is out, I don't have an indicator light that pops up like most CAN-BUS systems do

 

ok, I will take a look. Thank you for taking the time to write that, much appreciated. Would adding a load equalizer to the resistors help?